The present application relates to software and more specifically to systems, user interfaces, and methods for providing career-related information.
Software that provides career-related information is employed in various applications, including career development websites, employee-employer job matching websites, enterprise Profile Management (PM) software, and so on. Such applications often demand effective methods for collecting and presenting pertinent career-related information.
Effective methods for collecting and presenting career-related information to employees, prospective employees, employers, and prospective employers are particularly important in enterprise applications, where multiple career opportunities and potential career paths may exist, and where effective employee recruitment and retention can significantly impact both the success of an enterprise and its employees.
An employee may wish to know what opportunities are available at a given enterprise; what skills are needed; how to prepare; what career development paths lead to the opportunities; and what immediate steps can be taken to facilitate progressing toward a given opportunity. An employer may wish to know how to retain top performing employees; how to best recruit employees and convey available career growth opportunities; how to encourage employees to seek career progression, thereby encouraging them to develop their skills and knowledge, and so on.
Conventionally, an employee or prospective employee seeking career advancement may look to external (e.g., outside of the enterprise) websites, e.g., Monster.com, Craigslist.org, and so on. However, such websites typically only provide generalized information, which may be inapplicable to specific employee skill sets, career ambitions, and so on. Furthermore, the tendency of employees to seek external websites for career development opportunities may reduce enterprise employee retention.
To address employee retention issues, an enterprise may employ PM software to track employee performance metrics; to facilitate determining competency gaps; and to set employee goals to facilitate scheduling learning activities in view of perceived performance needs. However, such PM software typically does not specifically address an employee's (or prospective employee's) questions pertaining to overall career paths and the requisite skills and steps needed to proceed along a desired path in view of their individual preferences.